THE SPIRIT OF THE SAMAJ

champion of their faith. But the essence of Rammohmi's
faith was liberalism, and he was bound neither to orthodox
Christianity, nor to orthodox Hinduism, nor to orthodox
Sufism. His religion was Hinduism in its purest and
unadulterated form minus the conception of incarnations ;

Christianity (the ethical system of which religion was
emphasised by him) minus the conception of the Divinity
of Christ ; Sufism, freed of its orthodoxy, if any. His
attempt at establishing a spiritual link, a connected
life-current between the East and the West, shows clearly
rhat there was nothing sacerdotal or parochial in his
outlook, that, though an intense patriot ever fighting for
Indian interests in political life, he never allowed
his sense of patriotism to degenerate into race-prejudice,
and with him nationalism was never inconsistent with
internationalism. When he heard that any nation had
attained freedom, he was overjoyed. When Spain secured
a constitutional form of government, he gave a dinner at
the Townhall in honour of the event, and on his way to
England, he touched the French flag of liberty in support
of the Revolution m France against absolutism, which
became an old dilapidated thing.

A prince of the Arabian Nights in his mode of living
he was, nevertheless, an inexhaustible fund of energy and
activity, and he wore himself out in the service of his
country, not only as a great religious reformer but also
as a social and political leader. In the Presidential
Address to the Calcutta Theistic Conference of 1906,
Mr. R. Venkataratnam said,—Rammohun was "the
inspired engineer in the world of faith that cut the channel
of communication, the spiritual Suez, between sea and
sea land-locked in the rigid sectarianism of exclusive
revelation, and set their separate surges of natia

y

Q^S^ZW ^41

—Gn^k